Abbott's Lead Over Davis Grows To 11 Points In New Poll

The University of Texas at Austin/Texas Tribune poll showed Democratic gubernatorial candidate Wendy Davis was down by 5 points in October, but this month’s poll shows a wider 11-point margin between her and Republican frontrunner Greg Abbott.

Professor Jim Henson with the University of Texas at Austin’s Texas Politics Project said there is something else to note.

"We’re seeing a bit of shrinkage in the undecided numbers in the state level general election numbers," Henson said.

Henson said if you look at Abbott’s approval numbers since the fall, his campaign has done exactly what it needed to do.

"Despite that he’s the frontrunner in this election, Abbott did go into this election relatively less known than what we think of as the major players in Texas -- Rick Perry, Ted Cruz,' Henson said. "And he had to in a sense reintroduce himself to a wider variety of Republican voters and he seems to have successfully done that."

The poll seems to fall close to party lines, showing that 45 percent voting in the primary election would vote Republican and 32 percent voting Democrat.

But Henson said while this race looks like the balance of power, there are a lot of voters who aren’t thinking about the race at all. He said right now people are a lot more familiar with a political party than they are about the candidates running.

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Likely Republican nominee Greg Abbott’s ability to raise money continues to dominate the 2014 race for governor. Abbott’s campaign raised over three times the amount of money Wendy Davis’ campaign was able to collect in January.

In the last three months of 2013, Democratic candidate Davis’ campaign had taken in more money than Abbott during the last three months of the year. That celebration was short-lived as Abbott’s campaign showed they were able to raise more than $3 million dollars in January -- Davis’ campaign raised just under $1 million.